accessible it should have been in the past. it is the context. you also want to make sure [inaudible] because we all are very visual people. you are going to be working on problems. you want to be able to see it. they should also be following the party's in the ada -- the priorities in the ada. your task report should also be giving you some constructive solutions. they should be tailoring it to your very specific circumstances. [inaudible]

also, you want to make sure that your task inspector has a relationship with an attorney. it could be beneficial to have that legal expertise readily at hand. the task inspector may have learned some useful information. it is also helpful if your task inspector knows the contractor because the contractor can provide you with a construction bid for what is going to take. so i want to leave you with some closing thoughts. one of them, as mentioned at the beginning -- be proactive. do not wait for the letter. get the inspection now. the second is keep really good records. [inaudible] they had actually been doing

work over the years. they have been removing barriers. but because they were not keeping good files documenting the reasons why they widened a door or replace the hardware or remodel the bathroom, tracking exactly how much money they spend, they do not get a whole lot of credit for the work they have done so far. but you also want to keep good records tissue products you will be taking on in the future. maybe you cannot remove that step this year or next year. maybe it will take you five years to get there. but you are providing yourself protection.

>> good evening. we have a loan fund for small business owners facing ada compliance issues. opportunity fund is a non-profit organization sponsored by [inaudible] to help small businesses that could not obtain a loan from their banks. we created a loan program for small businesses who are trying to become compliant. under this loan program, we can provide financing for small businesses up to $100,000. those are the small businesses who have been sued, and there are small businesses trying to preempt of a protect themselves

against these issues. i will talk about the second rocket first. for the small businesses out there that have been hearing about compliance issues and what to protect themselves and make the improvement and have inspections done, we are willing to work with you and willing to look at the plans that you have any inspections you have to enable you to have tenant improvement to become compliant. for those folks, we would recommend that you go and get a task report done and see whether the contractor can lay out the plan and complete the requirement and then come to us and show us your plan. [inaudible] and have had complaints against

them because of compliance, we are also able to work with your peer the fundamental requirement for those is that we need you to finish the lawsuit or settle the lawsuit before we can work with you in terms of providing financing. the reason for that is the conversations and these issues can go on for a long time, and we want to make sure that you fundamentally understand what you need to comply with and what are your obligations as part of the settlement of the lawsuit. obviously, it can cost a lot of money. we have provided financing before. it is a lot of money. so come and talk to the office of small business and make sure you have professionals and task

inspectors and contractors lined up so that we can be part of that conversation in terms of helping you maintain your business and helping to stay in business despite the fact that a lot of businesses are being regulated by now. if you have questions, my information is in the packet. we are more than happy to field any questions, but again, because there are different parts of this whole saga, we are all in different parts in terms of financing, but the loan program will be available. it will be available until the ada compliance issues are no longer there.

>> thank you. any questions? [inaudible] we do have legal expertise and individuals with our mayor's office of disability. if you do have any questions at all about things that you might have heard about or issues you are facing, it might be the opportunity to ask questions. any questions? >> thanks, supervisor. sorry for being late. i heard the gentleman say that

the help for small business maximum is $100,000. someone else mentioned a repayment plan. a sort of interest rate and so on and so on. business people show up here. a lot of restaurants and small businesses, and i am certain those members are very interested in this program. i myself have been faithful so long. that is why i am interested. hopefully i will be able to learn something and pass on to the people who need my assistance. if there's any way the supervisor would be able to

generate a little more activity, maybe the location might not be perfect for the small orders to attend, and hopefully, we have another similar occasion to notify all those people to attend. but thanks so much for being here. thank you. >> yes, so, the typical loan for small businesses, these compliance issues, the term depends on the loan amounts. the most we can do -- in terms of other qualifications, again, this is a loan program, loan fund. these are not grants. they are credits. we will look at the capacity to avoid loan payments and also the totality of the situation, taking into consideration

whether there are legal fees or remediation fees that need to be paid. but i will say that we want to be an alternative for folks that cannot obtain financing from a bank. this may be a combination of that. maybe they need to go to a bank and get something and we can fill the rest or if they get decline by a bank, we can come in and assist with financing. >> [inaudible] you can only do so much to get people here. that is why we are asking for help from not only our media partners, but those of you in the room. people do not often come to ask for assistance until they are hit with a lawsuit. until they receive a complaint letter or a threat of being sued, they do not take the issue very seriously.

by that time, a lot of your investments are gone. you will be exposed to lawyer's fees, exposed to having to make copier repairs immediately. these are all things that are very hard for small businesses to weather. what we are trying to promote today is the fact that you can protect yourself as a small business if you are private about it. it is a hard mentality to get people to think about, but that is what we're hoping people will accomplish. we know if you get inspections and that you really put together a plan, that over time, we might not be able to do it today, we might not be able to do it in one year, but if we can make changes over five years or 10 years, that really helps to improve accessibility issues. that is something that is really helpful going forward pierre the other issue that was mentioned is the fact that if you are a business that has received [inaudible] from a certified individual, you

received a 90-day stint. the things that would not be counted for peer you can help to remedy the problem and get help, so that your liability at the end of the day is a very small one, hopefully. we know we will be heard from from our experts on a legal side. a lot of them can really add up here this gentleman again had heard about a situation where someone had already racked up $40,000 with of legal fees. became an issue. we are not talking about what it costs to fix up which in itself would be excess of, but also the legal component. your word of mouth and the people you know will really help. and, of course, to our media folks, people will read your articles and understand that they can really do a lot to protect their businesses early on.

>> i just want to add one comment about getting our association involved. we put together a really great training. we have a panel available to you. it is only going to cost you $35 for a 30-minute conversation, and that might be the best $35 you have already spent to avoid something that will be happening in the future. that is just part of the collaborative process with supervisor chu's office, and i am very grateful to her. there is a panel of lawyers that have all attended training and know-how to represent businesses and give you some expert advice. >> when we were first looking at the issue and working with different systems, we realize

that there was an issue with how you get loans to be able to make those improvements, how you get expertise to help walk you through what you're supposed to respond to. one of the components we saw that was missing was that legal component. how do we find lawyers -- where can i find quick information -- it is not very typical that someone already automatically knows a lawyer who can help them, so they might not know who to reach out to. they really put together a huge effort to train their lawyers that they become experts in this topic. that is something that i think is really important. as julie manchin, there is a $35 consultation that is available -- as julie mentioned. >> any other questions? there are multiple languages available.

vietnamese, tagalog, chinese. just to let you can receive assistance from some very qualified individuals. >> any other questions? if not, thank you very much for coming. [applause]

>> how are we all the win tonight? my name is chris. and welcome to the 32nd annual mfac awards. i know we are having a lot of fun in the back. if we could have everybody bring down the volume, we could get started and get back to the fun stuff. all right. hey, on behalf of spur and the

folks on the mfac committee, i want to welcome everybody tonight. these events do not just happen. a lot of folks put a lot of work on from selecting the winners to sponsoring the event. if folks could just hold the volume in the back a little bit, we could get through this. i first want to thank our biggest sponsor, and dignity health and wade rose. [applause] i want to thank pg&e. i want to thank the academy of art university, the folks at aecom, comcast, kmd architects, recology. my favorite giver is anonymous. thank you, anonymous, whoever you are. now? if you have a cocktail in your hand, or you are about to find a couple, i want you to find david from the laborers.

all the drinks tonight are being brought to you by laborers 261. let's give them a big round of applause. [applause] they are responsible for your hangovers. let's begin this great award. i first want to introduce cory, who is doing -- ok, we're having our first technical difficulty. i want to bring up corey marshall, who has done all the work that goes into the mfac award and the great government

consulting as they pick the products to bring a lot of innovation to san francisco. cory? give cory a round of applause. [applause] >> thank you, chris. thank you so much for all of your hard work, chris. none of this could be possible without your efforts. good evening. the good government awards are incredibly important in san francisco. it's a chance for us to honor the tremendous work that happens in the city and also to honor the individuals who are responsible for some of that success. congratulations to all of our honorees. we're very grateful for your work. let's give a hand for them. [applause] the good government awards also support spur's good government work. it is a central part of our mission. our agenda is admittedly

ambitious. we analyze every local measure on the san francisco ballot, which until recently was a pretty formidable task. we participate in most of the major issues of city government from pension and payroll tax reform to some of the most important discussions on how we fund a lot of our public services, whether that finding different revenue streams for our parks, are trying to find new ways to fund public transportation in the city. we're very happy to be working with mayor lee and the board to address a lot of these issues. this will clearly be a busy year for us. another component of our work is connecting the city's robuspro o assistance with our many business partners. this is a core part of mfac original purpose in san francisco. we are focused on building this capacity once again. as everyone here knows, the nature of how cities are doing business is changing. fundamentally. costly federal and state mandates continue to squeeze

local budgets. increasing costs are forcing discussions about how we provide services. technology is requiring that we move more quickly than we have in a long time. building a network of partners to support our city government at this time will be more important than ever and will be critical as we were to emerge from the recession. we have a real opportunity here. we also have a real responsibility to help investment and success of our city. spur is committed to making this happen. we hope that all of you join us as we work to leverage a lot of these partnerships once again. spur is a nonprofit. member-supported think tank in san francisco committed to the success of the city in all its forms. many of you are already members. can we get a show of hands of spur members? that's fantastic. thank you so much for your continued support of our organization.

without your help, none of this would be possible. for those of you who are not yet members, i hope you'll join us and get involved. roll up your sleeves and really get involved in the nuts and bolts of the city. we can all work together to engage the city so we can all succeed together. we're all investors in this town. thank you very much for all of your support and for joining us this evening. it is now my pleasure to introduce wade rose, the chair of the 2012 good government awards. wade? [applause] >> thank you, cory. appreciate it. good evening, everyone, and welcome to the 32nd annual good government awards. 32 years. finding people to give awards do because there are a lot of people who are dedicated to making sure that would we all get up in the morning, there's a

road to drive on, and the water is clean, the city hums. it takes all of you, it takes all of us, to make sure that happens. that is 24/7 every day of the year. it is a huge undertaking. dignity health -- see if i can find my paper here. dignity held, as some of you know, formally known as catholic healthcare west. we've changed our name about a month ago. we have been in the city about as long as did the government. about 1854. we represent a handful of organizations which are still in san francisco operating continually over 150 years to provide all of us service. in our case, its health care at st. francis and st. mary's hospital.

our familiarity with the county and government starts from the very day that the sisters of mercy, who came over from ireland, got off on a clipper ship down by north beach. within a day, they got a knock on their door where they were staying. it was members of the san francisco board of supervisors who came to ask them to open san francisco general hospital, which they did. they ran it for four years until a very familiar thing happened, and that was the county board of supervisors had a dispute about how to pay health care bills. the sisters said we've had enough of that and went on to create st. mary's hospital. as you can see, very familiar with how the city works. even then, over 150 years.

it is an important issue. we're glad to be able to provide it. we're glad to be able to be here and to recognize some super creative people and the super creative programs. the committee which reviewed folks and review projects had a tough time picking who should be chosen and who should be recognized. the list is fantastic. spur, of course, has worked for years and sponsor of this good government awards for a long time to make sure that the folks that work so hard that do not get recognized every day -- you do get recognized. firstly, from the business community, i want to say how proud we are to have you and how proud we are for the work all of

you do. now i am honored to introduce someone who personifies what the awards are all about. dedicated civil servant. a person who has won a good government award before. it was going to be our mayor lee. ed has been pulled off by one of those things that pulls you off at a moment's notice. ed phoned and said he wanted the head of the department of human resources, a mickey callahan, to represent him tonight. i would like to introduce mickey callahan. [applause] >> i am sorry not to be ed lee. i did not have enough time to grow a mustache.

i pass along to you the mayor's regret at not being here tonight. he is a strong supporter of this program. he is very familiar with the incredible work that spur does with the city, because of his work as a city administrativor,a lot of us from his vantage point of the mayor's office. i would like to recognize the department heads and elected officials. i know i've seen some of you here. thank you for coming out to support the fund workover our city employees. it is a privilege to me in particular to be here because i have had the opportunity for the last several years to be on the selection committee for the good government awards. it is really a treat. as a human-resources director, i get a lot of bad news. some of that gets in the newspaper. with all due respect to our brethren in the press, it's

always a good story to write about bad behavior that may happen in a city department or that a public employee may have engaged in. we are the largest employer in san francisco. it is only natural as some of that bad behavior may fall on our doorsteps. it is refreshing to see some of the wonderful work people are doing, who really personify the ethos of san francisco. i want to celebrate that. on behalf of the mayor, thank you. please do your part to extend your appreciation to those people. it was a very difficult process. the community members who are involved in the selection process, as we know, we had great nominees. we were forced to decide

between a very compelling nominations. i think something they all have in common is a dedication to the city. in my work, i've spent some time occasionally looking at h.r. documents, including studies on what motivates people. i have a post-it on my computer that says "mastery, but autonomy, and purpose." what they're finding at the higher levels of employee, what motivates people is not the almighty dollar, but these three principles. mastery, been technically proficient in your area. it is economy, where you are able to take initiative, operate within a zone that has been broad enough for you to use your creativity. it is purpose. purpose on behalf of the people of san francisco. i think all of the nominees that we are honoring tonight